Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister speaks to media following the delivery of Manitoba’s 2019 budget, at the Legislative Building in Winnipeg, Thursday, March 7, 2019. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski)
WINNIPEG — A newly-released poll shows the Progressive Conservatives’ decision to drop the provincial sales tax by one percentage point by this summer was a popular move.
Probe Research found six in 10 Manitobans and two-thirds of businesses agree it was the right choice by the Pallister government to fulfil a 2016 election promise.
The PST will drop from eight percent to seven percent on July 1, as unveiled in the government’s 2019 budget in March.
Four in 10 citizens surveyed, including one in five businesses, felt it was the wrong decision to lower the PST.
The former NDP government originally raised the PST in 2013 after former premier Greg Selinger publicly stated his government would not do so.
“There is a stark difference across party lines when it comes to whether reducing the PST was the right decision, as more than eight-in-ten PC supporters agree with their preferred party’s move,” the Probe survey says.
“Still, one-third of NDP voters and nearly one-half of Manitoba Liberal and Green Party supporters agree the provincial government should have reduced the PST.”
Probe Research conducted the survey between March 12-24, 2019, asking a random sample of 1,000 adults residing in Manitoba. A sampling of 203 business leaders was conducted from March 11-29. The results are within ± 3.1 percentage points of what they would have been if the entire adult population of Manitoba had been surveyed.
